The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-18

Er 1olding pippins clean through,
En- cts all aglow."
or the sentiment which runs through the
poem the Journal has no criticism to make.
. 1t is enough to say that the elbow" fills the
in writer with admiration for the reason that it
n suggests to him bell with a sound like
|esfmeetin' tune" FER the horn BLOWN fer
twelve ct noon" To inquire whether there
IS poetry in these suggestions is to raise the
too formidable question as to what constitutes
true poetry, and will not be attempted. Evil
IDENTIFY it is accepted as genuine by the Boston
mind, though it is not shown whether it is
the somewhat far-fetched reference to the
meeting house or the more direct and natural
hint at pie contained in the mention of the
. noon horn which arouses the esthetic Yankee
&snBibilities. The point sought to be made
here is that while Hoosier may feel just that
way about the blossom in question he would
place, he would not say ''pumkin" but
s'punkin," as every rural American who does
not wish to make himself laughing stock
among his neighbors does say. Comparatively
few persons have the moral courage to say
pumpkin" when talking to the men who
raise the vegetable, but who ever thinks of
} saying 'pumkin9"
Several words are open to objection in the
stanza quoted, but the most glaring is ''gold-
Ing" 1literate Indianians would never use
5hat word, and its adornment with final ''g
when the pippin following is not given one,
AZ
also be insisted that the wild Westerner who
@Eould use language at all approaching the
atrocious character of that in these verses
would not say ''aglow." In fact it may be
doubted if he would know the meaning of the
word. The vocabulary Of the indvidua&who
habitually says "etsv for ats" Ger" for 'or7
and "uv" for "of7 is very limited, and though
he may be Milton he is apt to be mute and
Snglorious and die with all his poetry in him.
Another verse begins:
..Et smells ca sweet es a honey pail
With tn bees sertin' onto tn bail"
Now '.pail" is one of the words which ex-
cites hilarity in the Hoosier mind He does
not, ike his down-east brother pail the
s.kaow;" he uses bucket 1t may be objected
that bucket does not rhyme with bail; but
the Journal is interested in preserving the
unities rather than the rhymes.
Another line reads, IN tn marigol bent no
maxim Of sass" "Be'nt'-probably intended
for contraction Of "be not" "bean't," as
it is sometimes spelled-may be used among
native Hoosiers, but those Hoosiers must
have borrowed it from Yankee neighbors 1t
is an imported phrase and not common here
abouts. As to the theory that poetic license
should excuse deviations from the phraseology
in actual uze the Journal holds that the man
who undertakes to write dialect should he
allowed no license. If he is not accurate it is
not dialect bat gihberish, and this as matter
OF fact, is what large proportion of the writers
Of what they pleased to consider dialect
give to the world. To write dialect requires
close study, careful observation and long
familiarity with the people whose language is
attempted to be copied; it is an art which de-
manda something more than facility for bad
spelling and the elision of letters from words
always pronounced with the letters in.